I hit a ghost on the freeway today!

[cv_rider]

Riding up the 880N in the Bay Area the afternoon, up in front of me was a large white thing floating the air. It was a styrofoam-y sheet/shroud like is wrapped around new disassembled furniture so it doesn't get scratched while still in the box. About 8 ft long and 3 feet wide. When I see lightweight stuff like this floating around on the road, I usually don't take evasive action. Hard to predict what it will do anyway - the wind bubble of the bike may just as easily push it away as suck it in. As I went by it, it went to my left side and sort of down. A second or two later, I looked down, and it was partially attached to the front fork. I was in the right lane, so I pulled over the breakdown lane to have a look. Sure enough, not only was it wrapped around the fork, but also all gummed up in the rear sprocket. Put it on the center stand and spun the rear wheel around enough to clean the sprocket of that gunk, which had turned into some nasty mixture of melted styrofoam and oil. It came off easier than I feared, and the worst of it was sitting on the side of the road as cars whizzed by four feet away at 60 mph. I appreciated the acceleration of the FZ6 when merging into a 60mph stream of traffic from a standstill.

Lucky that thing didn't get wrapped around my head while riding. That would have been really bad.

 

[Humperdinkel]

LOL , ooooh spooooky :thumbup:..........Glad it turned out ok but i would have tried to avoid it just in case it tried to attach itself to my visor and block my vision , now that would be scary

 

[ferrariman]

Riding up the 880N in the Bay Area the afternoon, up in front of me was a large white thing floating the air. It was a styrofoam-y sheet/shroud like is wrapped around new disassembled furniture so it doesn't get scratched while still in the box. About 8 ft long and 3 feet wide. When I see lightweight stuff like this floating around on the road, I usually don't take evasive action. Hard to predict what it will do anyway - the wind bubble of the bike may just as easily push it away as suck it in. As I went by it, it went to my left side and sort of down. A second or two later, I looked down, and it was partially attached to the front fork. I was in the right lane, so I pulled over the breakdown lane to have a look. Sure enough, not only was it wrapped around the fork, but also all gummed up in the rear sprocket. Put it on the center stand and spun the rear wheel around enough to clean the sprocket of that gunk, which had turned into some nasty mixture of melted styrofoam and oil. It came off easier than I feared, and the worst of it was sitting on the side of the road as cars whizzed by four feet away at 60 mph. I appreciated the acceleration of the FZ6 when merging into a 60mph stream of traffic from a standstill.

Lucky that thing didn't get wrapped around my head while riding. That would have been really bad.

WOw...I hope you are not talking abt the one I saw this afternoon in 880 too!! but yes..the one I saw was not that long..maybe half of it..and thankfully I wasnt even close to it...
But I am glad you are ok..and didnt happen what most fear..of..
KB

 

[cv_rider]

The half you saw was probably the half that wasn't currently in my sprocket. This happened somewhere in the vicinity of Newark at about 5 pm.

 

[wrightme43]

WOw...I hope you are not talking abt the one I saw this afternoon in 880 too!! but yes..the one I saw was not that long..maybe half of it..and thankfully I wasnt even close to it...
But I am glad you are ok..and didnt happen what most fear..of..
KB

For bags and light wieght stuff that may wrap around your helmet we are supposed to put the left arm up in line with the belly button, and top of the helmet. Let it wrap around your arm if it decides to but not the head.

Thats the plan anyway. LOL

 

[wolfc70]

I hate styrofoam!!! Years ago on my CX500 I center punched a styrofoam cooler that landed in my lane at about 65 mph. It flew out of the truck ahead of me in the next lane. Once I hit it, it was like snow behind me!! I pulled over to see if any pieces were stuck somewhere. I had melted styrofoam all over my headers and my (then) new hollowed out Sportster mufflers. It took lots of SOS pads to get that black melted goo off the exhaust system. I am still trying to figuire out what kind of idiot would put an empty styrofoam cooler in tha back of a pickup truck and then drive on the highyway.:tard::tard:

 

[Red Wazp]

I hate styrofoam!!! Years ago on my CX500 I center punched a styrofoam cooler that landed in my lane at about 65 mph. It flew out of the truck ahead of me in the next lane. Once I hit it, it was like snow behind me!! I pulled over to see if any pieces were stuck somewhere. I had melted styrofoam all over my headers and my (then) new hollowed out Sportster mufflers. It took lots of SOS pads to get that black melted goo off the exhaust system. I am still trying to figuire out what kind of idiot would put an empty styrofoam cooler in tha back of a pickup truck and then drive on the highyway.:tard::tard:

It was an empty cooler because he drank all the beer.

 

[FZyLarry]

I hit the lid from one of those Styrofoam coolers with a 650 Yamaha many years back. When I tried to apply the rear brake it was like stepping on a rock, the foam had melted to the exhaust and trapped the brake pedal. A real PITA to get dislodged & cleaned off the pipes :spank: to the jerks that put that stuff in the back of their trucks!

 

[wolfc70]

It was an empty cooler because he drank all the beer.

:banghead::banghead::banghead: I thought about that, but I wanted to give him the benefit of just being feckless. Don't get me started on the idiots with empty beer cans flying out of their truck beds!!!!:rant::rant::spank::spank: